Hiring a Makeup Artist for Your Daughter Isn't Spoiling Her

For most moms, the day their daughter starts dabbling in makeup is one they fear because it represents the entrance to the teen years. A dash of lip gloss and a flutter of mascara-coated lashes are signs their girls are growing up. I am not one of those moms. I am terrified of the day my daughter begins wearing makeup for another reason entirely.

I have no clue how to teach her to actually put on makeup. And I don't want my mom fail to be the reason my kid is the weirdo with the orange line down the side of her jaw. So it's been decided: I will be joining the throng of women taking their tween and teenage daughters to a professional makeup artist.

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Am I spoiling her? Not in the least. Trust me, this is one of the smartest mom moves I can make.

I am and have long been something of a "tomboy" type. I keep my hair short. I prefer jeans and a hoodie to heels and a dress. And if you haven't already guessed, I don't spend much time in the beauty aisles. Faced with row after row of skin-tone matching foundations, blushes, and concealers is enough to send me running for the spot with all the candy. In fact, my routine when I go out is thus: eyeshadow primer, eyeshadow, eye liner, done. If my lips have a certain shine to them, it's only because I've just applied the lip balm I buy in bulk to counteract my nervous habit of chewing (and it's got SPF!).

But chances are, my daughter is not going to be like me. Women who do wear makeup are the majority. A full third of ladies have admitted they won't even go outside without something on their faces.

If that's the path she chooses, I have no problem with that. Every woman is different, and I am raising a person, not a carbon copy of myself. But I don't want to be the reason she's getting picked on in the girl's locker room ... or worse, the reason she's crying in the bathroom because she can't figure out how to make the damn eyelash curler actually curl her lashes. Turning to someone else for help is one way I can protect her and arm her with tools she'll need in the future.

When you think about it, hiring someone to teach our daughters the proper way to apply makeup isn't that much more different than hiring any other professional to provide a service that extends beyond our own area of expertise as parents. We pay someone else to teach them to swim or someone else to cut their hair, don't we?